Dominoes vs Self-Discipline
You’re in your room, at your desk studying for tomorrow’s test. You get the urge to check your phone. You hesitate a little, then tell yourself you would spend just 2 mins. You spend 2 mins, you push to 3 mins, then 5….. It’s been over an hour and you are still on your phone. You probably experience the same thing when you “plan” to take a 30 mins nap while studying.
The above has its equivalent in Mathematics. The term is “Mathematical Induction”, a powerful tool for proving theorems in Mathematics.
For simplicity, it basically works like “Domino toppling”
Given a row of Dominoes(image shown above), If you topple the first one, a chain reaction starts. All other dominoes fall, as long as the conditions below are obeyed.
Condition 1: The first domino is toppled (stated above).
Condition 2: The distance between two consecutive dominoes is less than their heights (small distance).
Condition 1 is equivalent to checking your phone in the first place — starting the induction.
Being on the home screen of your phone is usually more interesting to unlocking it. Same as opening an app is usually more exciting to being on the home screen. Hence, the current state you are is usually more exciting than the previous state.
You always want the next “exciting” stage while using your phone. This is equivalent to obeying condition 2.
This explains why you overshoot your planned times. So how do you stop the chain reaction and stay disciplined during study?
The solution is to:
- Never topple the first domino
- Never start the Induction (In Mathematical Induction terms ‘case 1 is false’)
- Never check your phone in the first place.
If you do, you topple the first domino and the chain reaction starts.
Same applies to lustful thoughts, Facebook buying Instagram — kill it in it’s infancy. Here, you break the ongoing Induction or chain reaction, equivalent to removing a random domino in the line to invalidate Condition 2
When Religious Scholars quote scriptures, they tend to do so verbatim. It’s caution against gradually changing the original meaning of a verse — not starting the induction or toppling the first domino.
Hope this helps your productivity and self-discipline.
Also, try practicing the “moya look away” gesture.
